Ask HN: A New Decade. Any Predictions?

* It will take 10000NPM packages and 3tb of JavaScript to render basic HTML in the browser.

* The DOM and other basic web standards will become a mysterious lost art. Developers who understand this arcane art will be like COBOL developers of the previous generation.

* Desire for WASM to replace JavaScript will result in shallow webpages that are hollow shells containing only a WASM instance. Accessibility will be achieved with an alternate path to a poorly updated plain text document.

* The basic web technology stack will be several layers of large frameworks each doing the same thing. This, not games or video, will drive the future growth of computer hardware acceleration.

* A junior web developer will be somebody who graduates from a two day boot camp and wields the power of copy/paste.

1. Wireless internet gets cheaper, faster and more robust across the globe. Every single device/appliance/toy sold has a ~free data chip in it and is always connected & transmitting. The internet/WWW fully absorbs every other communication and delivery network out there (phone, broadcast TV, cable, satellite, radio). They finally figure out live streaming for sports.

2. There is less ambiguity and many new laws around data security and privacy, but they aren't very consumer friendly. Digital advertising enters a new era, and current players (Google, Facebook) lag behind. Think personalized movies & TV shows, deeper product placement everywhere, preemptive shipping.

3. Cars get a lot smarter. Traffic is more efficient, and there are fewer accidents. Driverless taxis may be mainstream in certain limited areas in large cities. Level 5 automation is still nowhere in sight, however. EV adoption continues at a steady pace.

4. Cash transactions are phased out in the US and most of the developed world.

5. Marijuana is legal across the US and in most other countries.

6. Beef and pork consumption craters in the US, replaced by healthier meats, plant-based substitutes and lab-grown meat.

7. Food delivery gets cheaper and healthier. A majority of urban households get fully prepared meals delivered every day.

8. People are no longer talking about VR/AR, crypto, chatbots, artificial general intelligence, flying cars.

* A new browser-like application will emerge which uses HTTP, but neither HTML nor Javascript as its UI construct.

* Electric cars using glass batteries will start to out sell gasoline cars.

* A product with the form factor and capabilities of current smartphones will emerge that can plug into a base and replace all be the most powerful desktop computer functionality.

* Genetically designed crops grown using ocean salt water will emerge first as animal feed and later directly to human consumption.

* Somewhere a war will be caused by the encroachment of sea level.

* The superpowers will attempt to negotiate a new Antarctic treaty in anticipation of becoming reasonably warm enough to exploit for resources.

* No manned expedition to either the Moon, nor Mars. Multiple robotic expeditions to both and perhaps the gas giants' moons.

* Polarization of American politics will take a back seat to major recession (or depression) that causes nationalization of the banking system to avoid national debt default and gives rise to talk of a Constitutional Congress, not from the progressives, but from the conservatives. The congress will fail and the United States will break up into five or more separate countries.

Quantum computing on aws

>- AI based systems will start to replace humans in the more mechanical parts of the legal system. Judging traffic court cases could be one example.

This won't happen not because it can't be done. But it won't happen because someone wants to keep his job. Sort of like how the F-35 was created just to keep some jobs.